Where We Stand On This Latest War
Most of this week’s column is devoted to the new war erupting in Lebanon, Gaza,
and Israel.

It was not so long ago when many held out hope for peace in the Middle East.
Israel took steps to remove many settlers from Gaza. The residents of the
Occupied Territories voted in an apparently free election for a new post-Arafat
Palestinian Authority government. Bitter rivals in that contest, each with their
own armed units, ultimately accepted the results.

But the Israeli Establishment, and their patrons in Washington, didn’t like the
government the Palestinian voters chose. They refused to deal with them and
through economic blockade began to try to starve the Palestinians into a regime
change. They stepped up efforts to complete a wall—ruled illegal by the World
Court—through the West Bank. And, they started hunting down, arresting,
abducting and assassinating key Hamas leaders, sometimes killing bystanders in
the process.

Far from undermining support for Hamas these brutal Israeli actions—that
affected virtually every Palestinian—strengthened Hamas. With Israel and the
U.S. seen as determined to deny them the promised right to elect a limited
government of their own desperate people fought back with whatever means they
had. For this they were condemned by Israel and the Bush administration as
“terrorists.”

Israel’s old nemesis in past wars in Lebanon, Hizbullah, decided to intervene in
the situation. They crossed the Lebanese border into Israel, killing three
soldiers and taking two prisoners. They demanded a prisoner exchange with
Israel.

Israel used this “kidnaping”of soldiers as a pretext for a massive bombing
campaign of Lebanon while also sending tanks into Gaza. The air raids were not
limited to Hizbullah targets along the border. There has been extensive bombing
of downtown Beirut and its harbor facilities; dozens of bridges throughout the
country; and communication towers, knocking out television and cell phone
service. Even some Christian neighborhoods were hit.

Hizbullah responded by firing crude rockets in the general direction of Israel.
Most have fallen in isolated areas but some have landed in cities where there
have been civilian casualties and property damage—including some Israeli Arab
neighborhoods. Indeed, most victims of attacks by both sides have been civilian
noncombatants.

Lebanon was only just beginning to recover from strife inflicted by past Israeli
invasions, and the ensuing civil war between rival proxy militias, that lasted
the better part of two decades. Now beautiful Beirut has once again been reduced
to a war zone and countless refugees are seeking shelter. Just as Hamas gained
popular support in response to Israeli actions in the Occupied Territories
Lebanese increasingly look to Hizbullah as their protector against Israeli
attacks.

The U.S. government has been cheering the Israelis on, reserving all their
condemnation for Hizbullah and the Palestinians. In a candid moment, President
Bush was heard to suggest to Prime Minister Blair that they should tell the head
of the UN to get on the phone and order Hizbullah to “stop this shit.”

As a matter of fact, Bush hopes to benefit from the human suffering he reduces
to “shit.” He sees this as a bright spot in an otherwise bleak “War on
Terrorism.” Certainly, pretending to defend Jews under attack is more popular
than the ongoing setbacks to his disastrous policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His assistance to the Israeli adventure goes beyond moral support—more American
high tech bombs are being rushed for use in Lebanon.

Bush and Rice cynically declare they don’t want a “premature” cease fire; they
want a long term solution. But their proposal of a “lasting solution” is
destruction of both Hamas and Hizbullah and puppet regimes being installed in
Lebanon and the Occupied Territories. Such an outcome is unlikely. Even if
Israel wins a big military victory in the current campaign the struggle against
Israeli repressive domination in Palestine will continue.

Truth is, as long as the Israelis retain the upper hand, this instability is
precisely what Washington wants. It has been the centerpiece of Anglo-American
Middle East policy since the end of World War II.

The record of U.S. support for Jews is not a good one. During the 1930s, when
many European Jews could still have been saved from their eventual fate in the
Holocaust, FDR’s administration essentially closed the door to refugees. The
liberals were cowed by powerful antisemitism. Only a handful of socialists
campaigned for saving the Jews by giving them shelter in America.

Zionism got a big break after the war only because it fit in to the partition
booby-trap strategy of British imperialism as it had to abandon most of its
former empire. To this day, Hindus and Muslims still fight over the partition
border left between India and Pakistan and Greeks and Turks still contend over
control of Cyprus.

The Brits cleverly turned over final disposition of their Palestinian mandate to
the newly established United Nations. A UN commission rejected a proposal for a
single federal state of Palestine, with rights guaranteed for a then Jewish
minority, in favor of a tortuous gerrymandered division into Israel and
Palestine sure to generate conflict—as happened immediately with the 1948-49 war
between Jews and Arabs.

Newly formed Israel, with the support of newly found “friends of the Jewish
people” in Washington, came out on top in that conflict and expanded its borders
considerably. Property and resources left behind by Arabs who fled to what
remained of the Palestinian territory (today the Occupied Territories) or
neighboring countries, was redistributed by the Zionists. This is the basis for
the demand by Palestinians for the “right of return” that continues to fuel
conflict today.

Arab Muslims and Christians, and religious and nonreligious Jews, all are
entitled to a stake in what was known as Palestine under British “mandate.”
Israeli military might will never completely subdue the Palestinians—nor will it
be decisively defeated on the battlefield. One doesn’t have to agree with all
the views of Jewish Voices for Peace to see the validity of their motto—Israelis
and Palestinians, Two Peoples, One Future.

In my view, lasting peace will be achieved only as a result of determined mass
political action by the working class majorities of both peoples. The working
class cannot accept a division where those in Israel enjoy a European style
standard of living while most in the Occupied Territories endure Third
World-like poverty. Nor can working people ignore the denial of basic democratic
and human rights so blatant in Gaza and the West Bank.

I share the opinion that the late Edward Said came to hold, that enduring peace
with justice can best be accomplished through the establishment of a democratic,
secular Palestine based on genuine equality for all ethnic and religious groups.
The money spent on the Israeli military could be used to rebuild a unified
economy that could guarantee all a decent standard of living.

That’s not going to happen tomorrow. The goal of lasting peace with justice
requires a long, difficult struggle. In the meantime both Arabs and Jews are
dying now, and the infrastructures of Lebanon and the Occupied Territories are
being destroyed now. The Israeli government is the main culprit but the U.S.
government shares culpability as well.

We should call on the Israeli government to immediately halt the bombing and
invasion of Lebanon, withdraw the forces sent into Gaza, and to lift the
economic blockade of the Occupied Territories.

We should demand the U.S. government end its encouragement of the Israeli
attacks, provide funds to rebuild the damage inflicted on Lebanon by American
bombs and planes supplied to Israel, and give urgently needed aid to the long
blockaded Palestinians.

Despite the confusion around these emotionally charged issues significant
protests have been mounted in not only Islamic majority countries but in Europe,
Australia, Canada, and the U.S.—and even in Israel—as well. That, at least, is
encouraging.

Don’t Feed the Pigeons…Or the Homeless
The Las Vegas city council voted unanimously this week to pass an ordinance
making it illegal to give food to homeless people in city parks. The ordinance
carries a maximum penalty of $1,000 or six months in jail, or both.

No Strike at Fenton
In the hot summer of 1968 I toiled for a few months at a Chrysler assembly plant
in the St Louis suburb of Fenton. I didn’t find spot welding frames on the line
very pleasant and jumped at the chance to take a truck driving job that opened
up.

I was not surprised to read that UAW Local 110 at that plant conducted a strike
vote over a log jam of grievances about overtime, the arbitrary use of
discipline and health and safety issues. 63 percent of the workers voted to hit
the bricks.. Unfortunately, the UAW constitution requires a ⅔ super-majority to
approve a strike.

This sounds like it’s time for WTR—the Work to Rule tactic being promoted by UAW
dissidents.